Poverty, inequality & welfare

11 things you need to know about BC Budget 2015

Feb 17, 2015
By
1. Budget 2015 ends the claw-back on child support payments for single parents on welfare. This is estimated to put $13 million in the hands of some of the poorest British Columbians. It’s a good step forward, but it is very very small. $13 million is three hundredths of one percent of the provincial budget…. View Article

Rethinking social protections in the age of contractors

Feb 14, 2015
By
The job market is changing rapidly. While most workers of our parents’ generation could have reasonably expected to spend their entire working careers in permanent full-time jobs with one or two employers, today many rely on contract work or freelancing, and even regular full-time employees change jobs frequently. There are pros and cons to this shift,… View Article

It’s time to seriously tackle child poverty

Nov 24, 2014
By
One in five BC children lives in poverty. This is the sobering finding of the 2014 BC Child Poverty Report Card released on November 24th, the 25th anniversary of a unanimous all-party resolution in Canada’s House of Commons to end child poverty in Canada by the year 2000. Child poverty is not just a big… View Article

How the Pie is Sliced in BC

Nov 19, 2014
By
It’s an interesting finding, and perhaps the start of a good trend: the share of income going to Canada’s top 1% has declined (Statscan release here, Globe story here). One great thing Statscan has done in recent years is to make its data freely available, so I went to dig deeper on national, BC and… View Article